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Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been stripped of royal titles, but the former prince retains one of his last remaining honours: a residential street named after him in the heart of suburban Melbourne.
A resident of Lalor’s Prince Andrew Avenue in the city’s north approached Whittlesea Council about changing the name in late 2025, following revelations about the disgraced former royal’s friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and abuse allegations against him.
However, the street will keep its name because most households asked in a doorknocking and postal survey between November 25 and December 28 did not back the change.
“[Residents of] Prince Andrew Avenue were provided an opportunity to have their say, with almost 80 per cent of affected residents and property owners not in support of a name change,” Whittlesea Council chief executive Craig Lloyd said.
“In accordance with the advice of Geographic Names Victoria, a majority of affected residents must support the request for it to proceed. As a result, the street name will not be changed.”
Resident Brendon Watson was disappointed but not surprised by the result.
“When I give someone my address to come by, I’m just like, ‘Yeah, I know it’s unfortunate’,” Watson said.
“It’s probably not going to come up again, I think it would have been nice to just deal with the short-term inconvenience of having to do it, just to separate ourselves from something which is pretty unsavoury.”
Watson wants the street to be called Prince Avenue or something similar, as there’s already a King Street and Queen Street nearby.
“We bought here in 2020 and even at that point in time it was pretty clear to a lot of people that it was kind of an unfortunate name,” he said.
Resident Vesna Palla said she is shocked and disgusted by allegations against Mountbatten-Windsor and was initially open to changing the name of the street.
However, after discussing the issue with older residents who had concerns about the hassle of updating their identification and other official documents, she decided not to respond to the council’s approach.
“It’s distressing for elderly neighbours and I didn’t want to go through that. It’s just time-wasting for me. Too much running around and money just to get a name change,” she said.
Liam McCallum moved in after the survey closed and while he understands why some neighbours wanted change, he does not have a strong opinion on the matter.
“I’ve got no problems with it being called Prince Andrew Avenue, it’s just a street name,” McCallum said. “If you were going to tackle that kind of issue seriously, then there’s a whole swath of problematic street names that would need to be reviewed.”
Many residents The Age spoke to said they received multiple messages in their letterboxes for and against the change in the lead-up to the vote.
Resident Neek, who asked not to provide a surname, wanted the name to change and believed many neighbours agreed but feared a “bureaucratic nightmare” and expressed concern about changing deeds to houses, licences and addresses.
“It’s an embarrassing name,” Neek said. “Everyone got scared here and went, ‘We’re not changing it, we’re not doing anything.’”
La Trobe University adjunct associate professor in planning Dr Kiran Shinde said it was unusual for names of streets to be changed, particularly when residents had lived there for a long time.
“Generally people don’t go for any changes because there is a process to be followed and that can be time consuming,” he said.
Whittlesea Historical Society believes the avenue was named after the late Queen’s second son as streets in the area were being drawn up around the time of his birth.
A Geographic Names Victoria spokesperson said it would fully support Whittlesea Council with an application to change the name of the street if it decided to do so in the future.
The latest tranche of Epstein files released by the United States Department of Justice included photos of Mountbatten-Windsor crouched on his hands and knees over a woman and new information about his friendship with Epstein after the billionaire’s 2010 release from prison.
King Charles stripped his brother of royal titles late last year and ordered his eviction from Royal Lodge near Windsor.
American-born Australian Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who died last April, alleged Andrew had assaulted her.
He was named in US court papers in which Giuffre alleged Epstein trafficked her to the then prince. He settled her civil sex assault claim against him before the case went to trial.
Andrew has denied wrongdoing, including during a 2019 BBC Newsnight interview in which he suggested a photo of himself and Giuffre circulating in the media could have been faked.
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Rachael Ward is a journalist in the City team at The Age. Contact her at rachael.ward@theage.com.auConnect via email.From our partners
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